Zoe Harrison Travel Web Site

What a welcome relief to arrive in Puno and meet up with Jason´s friends Greg and Julia. They´d had a rough time with a couple of thefts on their travels so after our adventures with the peeping tom I think everyone was ready to drown their sorrows.

We joined a tour to the Uros (floating reed islands) and Isla Taquile. Unfortunately the Uros have become floating market stalls for tourists - the local culture has all but gone. They now completely depend on tourism.

The contradiction - Isla Taquile. It´s inhabitants are an insular lot and appear to live and die there without ever leaving. They have maintained all sorts of wierd and wonderful customs such as if a man wears a red and white hat with it tilted to the left then he is single and to the right he´s married. If only life were this simple!

The Inca Express, Puno to Cusco 27th June 2004

OK, so time to ditch the public bus services in favour of a tour bus for our trip to Cusco.

Our first stop was Pucara, where we visited the Lithic Museum. A small quirky museum with inca and pre inca artefacts. Then La Raya, the highest point on the trip at 4335 metres where we were blessed with snow and it was proved that boys will always be boys and started a snowball fight.

The highlight of the Inka Express for me? The stop in Urcos, where I got to feed a baby alpaca!

We arrived in Raqchi and the temple of Wiracocha , for our first glimpse of Inca ruins. According to legend, the son of the Inca Yahuar Huaca had an encounter with the God Wiracocha here. Wiracocha said to the Inca's son that his father was in danger of death in Cusco, threatened by the Chancas. He immediately got together an army and left for Cusco. He won the battle, and to give thanks to Wiracocha he built a temple in the place where the aparition appeared. Wonder how this concept would fit in with the 21st century wars? Will Britons be building a temple dedicated to Tony Blair´s apparitions? Yes we have BBC World here!

Cusco 27th June to 7th July 2004

Cusco is the hop on point for tourists going to Machu Picchu and on the Inca Trail. Sorry to appear crass, but after 3 months on the road we just had to indulge in the Irish bars and English pubs. What a delight to be eating Shepherd´s Pie (but not as good as my mum´s) and a Full English Breakfast so far away from home!

In Cusco we stayed in a really special place called Ninos Hotel (www.ninoshotel.com) , which feeds 250 street children every day. It also provides them with a shower, extra help with homework and sporting activities. A real worth while cause that wants to help break the cycle of begging children on the streets. All of this and probably the nicest hotel we have stayed in so far. All of the rooms are named after adopted children - we stayed in the room called Janet - my mum´s name!

The Cruel, Cruel Inca Trail 2nd - 5th July 2004

Agonizing, harrowing, back-breaking, punishing, gruelling, ruthless, unrelenting....that feels better. You can´t begin to imagine how painful this whole experience was.

I will try to start with the positives:

- a great guide, Melissa. Who ensured our safety and well being at all times, supporting me and encouraging when times were tough.

- an industrious set of porters. Who woke you in the morning with a piping hot cup of Coca tea, a bowl of water to wash in, and more often than not a toothless smile. And greeted you into camp at the end of the day with more of the same and an already erected tent.

- a fabulous cook. Who wowed me with culinary delights in the most limited of cooking conditions.

- and mostly some good company - Tom, Neil, Genevieve, Greg and Julia, Ben and Flor, and Anto´ (and some other bird who was self obsessed and rather loud so doesn´t qualify as good company).

So, now the down sides. Someone, somewhere must have been having a good laugh. It´s the middle of the dry season and it hasn´t rained on the Inca Trail for over 15 years. So who´s idea was it to open the heavens on the 2nd July and not plug them up until the 4th? Sorry to be "terribly British" and talk about the weather but it was the downfall of the whole trip.

After 1 1/2 days of trekking (in the wind, rain and mud) we found our porters turning back with the message that Dead Woman´s Pass was impassable due to snow. So Melissa quickly made the decision that we should do the same. To give you some idea of how demoralising this was - we started at km 82 on day one and had to retrace at least a day´s walk back to km 88 and take an alternative route. Needless to say there were always going to be those half wit Americans wooping it up and pushing on past us thinking they were invincible. Even they had to turn back eventually.

Day three was virtually unbearable as I inched my way on with fairy sized steps, and stiff legs and knees at the very back of the group. This should have been a relatively easy day but we had extra ground to cover from the day before. I arrived at camp and was blessed with the first good weather and hot shower since we started. All good news but then there was a 3 hour uphill trek in store for the next morning at 5.00am. As I said relentless!

Day four and I would like to say that the first sight of Machu Picchu from the Sungate was worth all the pain. The truth? Salt was really rubbed into the wounds as the first groups of super-sized American tourists arrived by bus from the neighbouring town Agua Calientes - puffing and panting up the 10 steps to the entrance. Somehow they didn´t seem worthy of being there. Didn´t they realise "THE" way to really appreciate Machu Picchu is by trekking and camping for 4 days and 3 nights and arriving via the Inca Trail? Reckon they must have had a tip off. My advice for anyone wanting to visit Machu Picchu...ditch the idea of the Inca Trail and join the rest of the savvy tourists and take the bus.

Arequipa 7th - 10th July

Only a short flight away to a beautiful city, Arequipa, promising 360 days of sunshine a year. I fear I´m becoming weather obsessed!

My reason for being here (obviously the weather and)... visiting the Santa Catalina Convent (www.santacatalina.org.pe/)

Jason´s reason for being here ...

to watch Copa America 2004 football matches. Oh how we differ! Although, in hindsight it was worth sitting on a cold concrete seat for 5 hours just for the mexican waves alone never mind number 20 from Costa Rica´s team! (Girls, check him out at http://global.terra.com/copaamericaperu2004/ click on ´photos´, then the match´Paraguay 1 - 0 Costa Rica´.)

It was great to meet up with Tom from our Inca Trail team for a pre-match drink. And later Stefano and Gerry, who had mopped up my woe after the peeping tom incident in Copacabana. You´ll be pleased to know that there´s still life in the old dogs and we partied and danced on down in Deja Vu until the small hours. Shame we had such an early start the next day.

From Arequipa we did a side trip to see the magnificent Colca Canyon, which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon (one over on ´them´). It´s also famed for the beautiful condors that fly over head in the early morning. They didn´t let us down and were stunning.

Nazca 10th - 13th July

Nazca is the definition of the word desert! Water is so scarce here that launderettes don´t even exist!

We came to Nazca to visit the ´lines´- huge geometric patterns and spirals, animal figures (including a monkey, a spider and an 'astronaut'), and thousands of perfectly straight lines etched into the desert. The 300 geometric figures, the drawings and lines cover about 500 square kilometres. Some lines are about 65 kilometres long, and the 50 or so figures range in size from 25 metres to 275 metres long.

To appreciate the lines we took to the air in a small 4 seater Cessna with our pilot Manuel. I did this with some apprehension after just hearing that last week my dad´s plane had a fuel blockage, the engine stopped and he had to perform an emergency landing. The cause - dog hairs in the fuel pipe! He´s threatened to shave the dog!

Anyway, the lines were an incredible sight from the air and we got to appreciate and question the wonder and purpose of it all. It´s thought that the lines were made by the Nazca Indians who lived in the region between 300 BC and 800 AD but there are lots of theories about why they are there. It seems that a lot of scientists believe they are astronomical markings, others walk ways and ceremonial sites.

Lima 13th - 15th July

Our original plan was to arrive in Lima on the 14th and leave on the 15th but the citizens of Peru have designated the 14th as a public holiday ... or as they like to call it a national strike day! Can you believe a whole country can go on strike?

So we made it to Lima on the bus with our lives solely in the hands of the driver. On the same stretch of road and only 4 days before there was a head on crash between two buses and 37 people were killed.

Well, time is flying and I can´t believe that tomorrow we are moving on to the second leg of our trip - Central America and Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. My old haunts! 8 years since I´ve been there and can´t wait.